"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Spring Training Game Wrap 3/20/2018: Royals 10 Giants 1

The Giants bats didn't show up, but they didn't pitch well in a lopsided loss. Key Lines:

Josh Rutledge SS- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .355. Rutledge started at SS, which tells you the Giants are seriously thinking of keeping him over Kelby. I believe Kelby has an option.

Jarrett Parker RF- 0 for 4. BA= .220. Parker did not help his cause in this one.

Steven Duggar CF- 0 for 3, BB. BA= .250. Duggar is fading down the stretch making it easy for the Giants to tell him he needs more salt.

Andrew Blanco 2B- 1 for 4. BA= .278. Darkhorse candidate for reserve IF role. If it's not Kelby, Rutledge probably has the advantage.

Derek Holland LHP- 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.20. Holland is competing for both a rotation spot and the long-relief/swingman role. The peripherals suggest he had good stuff and good command. He's probably more in line for the swingman role.

Sam Dyson RHP- 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 15.00. Yikes! You don't want to see lines like this from your primary setup guy this late in spring training! Dyson was greeted by HR, BB, HR, 1B. He struck out the next batter but then was pulled from the game.

Julian Fernandez RHP- 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 14.14. The ERA doesn't look like much, but when he's been on, Fernandez has been impressive. He put out Dyson's fire then breezed through the next inning showing he could go more than 1 inning. Does Ty Blach have an option?

David Dahl OF, Rockies- 2 for 3, 2B. BA= .250. On the other hand, Almost any Rockies hitter has a chance to be a fantasy baseball asset. Dahl is a fave of mine, but from what I've been reading will almost certainly begin the season in AAA.

Yoan Moncada 2B, White Sox- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .255. Moncada got off to a painfully slow start this spring but has been on a tear of late.

Scott Schebler OF, Reds- 2 for 2, SF. BA= .543. Schebler is my new favorite bargain OF. He plays in a good stadium to boot.

Dinelson Lamet RHP, Padres- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.38. Lamet is a hard thrower and can put up impressive numbers, but his arsenal may be too limited for the long haul.

Jose Pirela OF, Padres- 2 for 3. BA= .452. Sleeper alert!

Justin Turner 3B, Dodgers- I'm sure y'all have heard the absolutely terrible news that Justin Turner has a small fracture in his wrist from a HBP and will likely miss the first month or so of the season? Just happens the Giants play the Dodgers a whole bunch during that time.

Dan Straily RHP, Marlins- Straily has an elbow sprain and will miss time. He was one of my bargain pitchers. Now he's on my do not draft list.

8 comments:

I believe Blach has an option, per the comment someone left here on another of your posts, of players without options.

I've been thinking that the best way to keep Fernandez with the Giants is to do the following. First, we put him on the 25-man/40-man, and start the season with him. We do that by optioning the fifth starter to the minors, whether it's Stratton or Blach, clearing a 25-man spot for Fernandez. We don't need the fifth starter until the 3rd week of April, per the schedule. Also, with Holland on the pitching staff, he could take the #5 starter spot for a while, if the Giants feel they need more time to work out a deal with the Rockies, so that they can hold off bringing up the #5 starter. Basically wait for the Rockies to have a 40-man full of guys they want to keep over Fernandez, and make the trade then.

And who knows, maybe Fernandez pitches well enough to stick. Though that's tough too because at some point, Will Smith returns, and they will need a spot for him (Osich? Seems a shame if he's back to goodness, but he does have an option), and at some point, we need a fifth starter or long reliever (unless they want to allow some bullpen games early on, with Gearrin and Strickland throwing 2 innings each, Fernandez too, if he's around), and bring back up Blach/Stratton. At that point, the Giants would probably have to trade a reliever, as there are no bench spots available if it's Jackson and Blanco in OF, Sandoval and Kelby in IF, so non chance to carry 13 pitchers, and most of the pitchers have no options, only Stratton, Blach, and Osich. They could bounce Stratton and Blach up and down as 5th starter, but if Stratton continues being as good as he was last season, that's not a good option.

Of course, if Fernandez sucks enough, maybe the Rockies don't want him back?

Yeah, Kelby has an option. Rutledge has hit well, but so did Chase, and Chase got a lot more SS opportunities than Rutledge this spring. Maybe they want his bat more?

Oy, Dyson is suddenly hittable again. I guess he's still trying to throw more with his lower half, and failing.

Yes, I did hear about Turner. Now the Dodgers can see how life is without one of their key hitters. Perfect timing since the Giants play the Dodgers a lot in the first month.

Also, did you hear Greinke is not even starting the D-backs opening game? He's having trouble again, the Giants are much better off with Cueto/Samardzija over Greinke (or was that their plan?). Now the D-backs can feel what we felt last season, when Cueto, our ace, was struggling when we needed him. Of course, they know that feeling from 2016, when Greinke was struggling then too.

After a loooonnnnggg overnight flight from San Francisco to Sydney (AU), to be greeted by Holland's horror and Dyson's disaster -- 5 HRs!3 regulars in the lineup 1-9 & RISP 0-10.My mama told me there'd be days like this!

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.